ld pity me and show me some way of
covering it all up. But after I had your promise to come, I was seized
with the fear that you might--that you might betray him. That is, I
suppose, the real reason why I tried to deceive you. In my terror I
myself thought Allan guilty. But, of course, now that I have had time
to calmly think it over, I know he was not--that he _couldn't_ be! No
one who knows him will believe he did it."

"What reason had you for thinking that he might be guilty?"

"His manner during the afternoon before the murder. He seemed so
fiercely resolved, so different from his usual self."

"I understand. And what makes you think now that he is innocent?"

"I believe it because I understand his nature," said Miss Vale,
earnestly. "He might be finally aroused--under provocation he might
even be violent. But he could never do a thing like this--it is too
utterly horrible."

"You have judged that it was probably he who was seen to go into
Hume's before the murder?"

"Yes."

"Hume was alive when Berg closed up his shop; he was dead when you
entered his showroom a half hour or so later. Therefore he must have
met his death while the cab driver Sams sat on his box across the
street. Now, while Morris was seen to go in, it is not at all positive
that he was the man who came out. We are not _sure_ that he was not
present when the crime was committed."

Miss Vale reared her head proudly.

"Is it possible," she said, "that you are trying to fix this deed upon
Allan Morris?"

"I am trying to find the real truth," answered Ashton-Kirk, gravely.

"The police," said Miss Vale, "according to the newspapers, thought
that the criminal gained admission by way of the roof. This may or may
not be so; but I think it is pretty evident that he made his way out
in that manner. I was on the stairs while he was in the hall. He fled,
but as he did not pass me, he must have gone upwards. If Allan Morris
had done this murder he would not have thought of this; not knowing
the section, he would have been ignorant as to where the roof would
lead. But if Spatola were the man who remained, it would have been
different. Do the papers not say that he lives in a garret, or loft,
in the same block? How easy it would have been for him to pass out
upon the roof of 478 after the crime and then over the housetops of
the block until he came to a scuttle which perhaps led into his very
attic?"

"That," said Ashton-Kirk, "is very well conc